Items filtered by date: February 2018

It is becoming a norm, that most elected political office holders across the country, and in particular the Niger Delta, do not have anything to do with their constituents until the eve of another election year.

The issue of zoning the top job – the governorship seat in Cross River State gained a foothold in the political discourse of the state in the build up to the 2015 general elections. The reason for this dominant debate and clamour by some PDP politicians of the Northern Senatorial District extraction at the time was not far-fetched. It was believed that for equity, the governorship of the state should be zoned to the north. Perhaps, the proponents or key agitators of the shift in power never took into cognizance what political leadership should entail in a state like Cross River with a huge yawning gap in all indices of development. Events of the last three years in the governance of our dear state should force us to wear our thinking caps to revisit the zoning contraption that was foisted on us by the PDP gladiators at the time.

There is every indication that the issue of zoning the governorship ticket in Cross River State will define not only the tone of electioneering campaign but also its outcome in 2019 when the actual election will be held. Zoning will determine the political equation in terms of power sharing, particularly, the governorship tickets, among the political parties just the way it happened in 2015. This does not mean aspirants won't spring up from the three senatorial zones. But parties will consciously pick the eventual candidates that would fly their flags in 2019 on the basis of a zone or character of the person with the credentials to easily win the election.

This is season of endorsements for the Cross River State governor, Prof Ben Ayade for the 2019 governorship race. His loyalists, like-minded politicians, political appointees, various support groups are falling over one another to endorse the governor for another term in 2019. The latest of such endorsement is coming from the 7-Alive organization which comprises the seven local government areas in the Southern Senatorial District in the state.

Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt Hon John Gaul Lebo fielded questions from TNN 's correspondent in Calabar, David Odey, on a number of issues bordering on legislative functions, the controversial 2018 state's budget, the refugee crisis, the collection illegal levies by MDAs, the chummy relationship with the state governor, among others